Wheels down at 10:28 am for today’s bike ride on the “May Park Community Center – Huffman” route. I bicycled 40.9 miles putting July at 104.16 miles. Weather during the bike ride: start 85 (72% Humidity), Mostly cloudy, wind SW 7 mph. Finish 93 (53% humidity), Partly cloudy, wind W 7 mph.

After yesterday’s bike ride I connected the PowerPod to my computer and installed new firmware version 6.4. One of the improvements is a much shorter calibration period at the beginning of the ride. Previously it was 8 minutes but now is 90 seconds. Before rolling the Canyon out of the garage I pushed the “start” button and the green LED flashed a few times and by the time I got to the gate about 20 feet away the Elemnt showed 0 watts meaning the PowerPod was awake and connected. By the time I rode to the end of the driveway watts showed on the Elemnt much quicker than before. During the ride I noticed the watts seemed higher than before (I tweaked a couple of settings) and more realistic like when I rode into a headwind the watts would increase and with a tailwind watts would be lower. I am pleased after one ride.

With a light wind I rode at a good pace without any issues. My first stop was at the May Community Center on Wolf Road to refill my water bottle. As I walked in the lady at the front desk asked how I was doing and I replied, “Hot.” After filling the bottle I went outside and stood under the portico enjoying the breeze and cooling off. After a couple of minutes the lady from the reception desk came out and we chatted about how far I was biking and life. She told me she is a heart transplant candidate on the waiting list and then she pointed out the heart pump she wears. She has worn it for 4 1/2 years and it has done a good job. Because of that she asked to not be at the top of the list. She told me about missing swimming and showers but baths are good too. We thanked God for the blessing we each have she went to her car and I got back on the bike. Photos of the May Center.

Biking from the center to FM 2100 was into the wind requiring more power and the PowerPod showed that. For a change when I got the traffic light at FM 2100 a car in front of me tripped the light and I made the left turn onto FM 2100 south without waiting. The trip to the Huffman Chevron took me through a section of new asphalt where a new school is under construction west of FM 2100. Also I saw the construction right away for the 8 foot pipe that will carry water from the Trinity River to Lake Houston. This also crossed the road when I was going to the May Center.

Arriving at the Huffman Chevron I took a 20 minute break to eat a couple of granola bars, drink water and cool down. The ride summary at that point.

Wahoo Ride Summary Huffman Chevron

After checking my emails and refilling the water bottle I was back on the bike to finish the remaining 11+ miles.

I set a good pace bicycling west on FM 1960 until I was over Lake Houston when the “light” wind started to slow me down but the traffic started passing by and broke the wind enough that I increased my speed. My overall average speed was up to 14.4 mph and stayed there until I was at Town Center park in Kingwood where the starts and stops took their toll. I finished the ride at 1:54 pm.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast calls for rain and it is July 4th so biking probably will not happen. Thursday looks a little drier.

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary